Class VIII pass has over Rs 2,000 cr assets

A 56-year-old woman with over Rs 2,000 crore assets, fighting as an independent from two constituencies in West Bengal, is the richest candidate among the 601 candidates in fray for Lok Sabha seats in the ninth and final phase on May 12.

Shamali Bose, who is Class VIII pass, is contesting from Jadavpur and Kolkata South. As per her election affidavit, her total income is Rs 1,74,240 for 2012-13. She has Rs 20,000 cash in hand while she is in possession of 3,000 acres of estate land worth around Rs 2,000 crore and other buildings.

Prominent candidate

Shamali’s election symbol in Jadavpur is table lamp and she is contesting against Trinamool Congress’ Sugata Bose and Congress’ Samir Aich. In Kolkata South, her symbol is candles and she takes on prominent candidates like Mala Roy (Congress) and Subrata Bakshi (Trinamool Congress).

She also has a gmail and Facebook account.

According to Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), there are 100 other candidates out of 601 candidates who are crorepatis. Film maker Prakash Jha, who is contesting on JD(U) ticket from Bihar’s West Champaran, is the second richest candidate with Rs 92 crore assets and BSP’s Shah Aslam with assets worth Rs 70 crore is third.

In the final phase there are some nominees who have very less money. Sougata Ghosh, an independent candidate from Diamond Harbour constituency in West Bengal, has declared that he has zero assets while Manik Chandra Mondal of IUML contesting from West Bengal's Tamluk has only Rs 1,000.

The average assets per candidate contesting in the ninth phase is Rs 8.50 crore, the ADR and NEW analysis said.

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for the Congress is Rs 2.79 crore, BJP nominees is 2.81 crore, AAP candidates have Rs 1.82 crore and the BSP candidates have Rs 7.20 crore.